ENUMERATION 359

52. AMBIGUOUS ENUMERATION

In comma'd enumerations, care should be taken not to insert
appositions that may be taken, even if only at first sight, for
separate members.

Some high officials of the Headquarter Staff, including the officer
who is primus inter pares, the Director of Military Operations, and
the Director of Staff duties . . .—Times. (Two, or three, persons?
Probably two; but those who can be sure of this do not need the
descriptive clause, and those who need it cannot be sure)

Lord Curzon, Sir Edmond Elles, the present Military Member, and
the Civilian Members of Council traverse the most material of Lord
Kitchener's statements of fact.—Times. (Is Sir E. Elles the Military
Member ? No need to tell any one who knows; and any one who does
not know is not told)

I here wish to remark that Lord Dufferin first formed the Mobiliza-
tion Committee, of which the Commander-in-Chief is President, and
the Military Member, Secretary, Military Department, and the heads
of departments both at Army Headquarters and under the Government
of India, are members with the express intention of . . .—Times. (Is
the Military Member Secretary of the Mobilization Committee? Well,
he may be, but a certain amount of patience shows us that the sentence
we are reading does not tell us so)

53. ANTICS

A small selection must suffice. Straining after the dignified,
the unusual, the poignant, the high-flown, the picturesque, the
striking, often turns out badly. It is not worth while to attain
any of these aims at the cost of being unnatural.

i. Use of stiff, full-dress, literary > or out-of-the-way words.

And in no direction was the slightest concern evinced.—Times*

The majority display scant anxiety for news.—Times.

. . . treating his characters on broader lines, occupying himself with
more elemental emotions and types, and forsaking altogether his
almost meticulous analysis of motive and temperament.—Westminster
Gazette. (We recommend to this reviewer a more meticulous use of the
dictionary)

And most probably he is voted a fool for not doing as many men in
similar positions are doing—viz., making up for a lack of principle by
an abundance of bawbees easily extracted from a large class of contrac-
tors who are only too willing . . .—Times.